Memories That Fade Like Photographs
by prostheticheartbeats
Summary: Miley's mom dies, and the whole Stuart family is broken. Needing to get away, they move to California. There, Miley finds someone who changes her whole life and makes the old memories fade away into new ones. Liley
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** Copyrights reserved. I do not own Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Emily Osment, Jason Earles - etcetc. Hannah Montana does not belong to me either.

**Warning:** Femslash. Depressing. Cussing. Later on in the story, sexual.

**- Prologue**

My dry eyes stared at the phone, as my sweaty hand trembled. The phone slipped out of my hand, and I barely noticed. I'm slipping into a darkness that I can't seem to get away from. My dad's words were repeating in my head. 'She's dead, Miles.' My mind was a broken record. I could hear my dad screaming on the other line, asking if I'm all right. It's all a lie. My mom can't be dead. A couple months ago, she was so healthy. Memories of her genuine smile, and her loving arms holding me passed through my mind. And thats when it hit me. She'll never sing to me again. She'll never hold me in her arms again. She's gone. And she's gone forever. And it happened. Tears poured over my eyelids and I could only see dark. I tried taking deep breaths, but I couldn't seem to breathe. "God, why did you take her away from me? I hate you!" I screamed, falling onto the floor and curled up in a ball while the tears keep flowing. She's gone, she's gone, she's gone. Forever. Why me? Why my family? This was the last thing we needed right now. I can imagine my daddy's broken heart, and my brothers blank emotion. Everything was slipping away from me slowly. I couldn't control it. I keep screaming, hoping the pain will go away. Bring her back to me. I want my mom back. She can't be gone.

*-*-*-*-*

Buzzing. That's all I could hear. This loud buzzing and it wouldn't stop. Buzz, buzz, buzz. I try to clear my throat, but I just end up in a coughing fit. I force my eyes open, waking up from a deep sleep. It was a dream, wasn't it? A horrible, horrible dream. I notice I'm in the corner of my room on the floor, and realize this was no dream. The buzzing is continuing and my patience level is growing less and less. "Dammit." I mumble, searching for the source. I find my phone on my bed, underneath the sheets. Jackson. 35 missed calls. "Fuck me!" I curse outloud, and instantly the phone starts buzzing again. I answer this time, forcing the words to come out.

"Jackson." I whisper, barely. If I said anything else, the tears would flow again. I'm too weak to cry. I just want to curl up and sleep forever. Be with my mommy.

"Miley.. she's gone." Jackson sobbed into the phone line, and my heart stopped beating. Jackson never shows emotion. I don't know what to say, so I just stay quiet listening to his cries. My heart breaks more, if even possible. "Why us, Miles? Why mom? Couldn't of God chosen someone else who deserved it? Not an angel like momma. That's why He wanted her, Miles. He had an angel missing up there, and he couldn't bare it any longer." Once again, the tears start pouring down my face and my cries are loud. I hear jackson sigh. "Gosh, I'm sorry. You're worse than I am. I didn't.. Miles, are you at home?"

I take in a very long and deep breath before pushing out a "Yes." He stayed quiet, obviously waiting for me to say something else. I searched my mind for things to say, but every thought just came back to my mom. God, mommy.. Why'd you have to leave? I begin to cry again. "Jackson, God doesn't love me."

"Why in the world would you say that?" Jackson sounded appauled. How could he? He should understand. Why doesn't he?

"He took the only thing in life that made me happy away from me. He doesn't want me to be happy. He hates me. Well if so, I hate you too, God. You bastard!" I yelled into the phone, crying and screaming. I knew Jackson wouldn't like this. Oh well. He has to deal. I hate myself. It's all my fault. God hates me so he took her away from me, to punish me.

"God loves you. He wants mom watching over you. As an angel." He reassured me. Bullshit. It didn't help. I hung up the phone, and continued crying. I cried until I couldn't even feel anything anymore. I stare at the ceiling, and then look to the wall. All over are pictures plastered of me and her. She was beautiful. Why couldn't i have that beauty? She took my breath away. Maybe she _was_ an angel. I tried to get up out of bed, but my body was too weak. I lay there for what seemed like hours. I cried and slept. I wasn't keeping track of time. Daddy or Jackson hasn't been home yet, they've been at the hospital getting things organized for the funeral already. Oh god, my moms having a funeral. Tears burned my eyes, and there I was thinking I didn't have any bodily fluids left in me..

*-*-*-*-*

"We're moving to California." My daddy tells me, like nothing in the world is wrong. "Pack your bags, bud. We're leaving today. I already bought us a nice house over there. Right on the beach. You'll love it, Miley." It's been two weeks since mommy died.. And the house had an empty feeling to it. My friends whom I thought were my friends, shrugged it off and said I'm sorry. They don't understand why I'm so upset. They must've not loved their mom like I loved mine. When my daddy speaks, you hear this empty sadness in his voice. But he tries to fake it. Fake it for me and Jackson. But we're all faking it. We all want to sit around and cry. But that's not what she would want. She'd want us to continue on life, smiling like everythings okay. So we faked it. For her. I'm sure she'd be even more mad if she found out we were all faking. Mommy, I hope the view from up there is good. because from down here, it sure does sucks. I pile all my clothes into one suitcase and sigh. I'd be leaving the one thing that had her left in it. But we had to. We had to get away. It was killing us and we can't bare it any longer. I shove my toothbrush and toothpaste into my carry on bag and grab my makeup and walk downstairs slowly with my purse and suitcase.

"Okay, daddy. I'm all packed and ready." I announce when I arrive to the bottom of the stairs. Jackson and my dad are already sitting there waiting for me. I let out a fake smile, and they give me one right back. That was our routine now. Everything was fake. Our jokes, our smiles, and even our laughter. I missed it. I wanted the old Stewart family back. But I wanted my mommy back. We'd be sitting around our kitchen table laughing about something dumb Jackson had done. But now Jackson wasn't even himself. I don't think any of us could be. We all piled into the pickup truck, my mommys favorite truck in the world.

After a long car ride, we finally make it to the airport. And before we know it, we're sitting on the airplane waiting for take off. I look out the window, feeling lucky enough that Jackson and my daddy let me have the window seat. I was taking Tennessee in. Because this was the last time I was seeing it. 'Be prepared for take off!' the overhead speaker said. I buckled my seat belt, and stared at the beautiful state of Tennessee. As we lifted off into the air, all I could whisper was: "Bye mommy."

**Authors Note**: Prologue, kinda short. But this was meant for good reason and you'll see why. Review and favorite if you like. If not well sorry. (:


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N**: I updated sooner than I thought I would! Thank you for the one review. :P In this chapter, I have my own character. So yes I own him.

**Chapter One**

Algebra. I never liked it much, and definitely not at a new school. No one noticed me, which I was more than thankful for. I was invisible. Just like I had planned. I lay my head down on the desk, closing my eyes. Time for sleep. Last night, I was listening to my daddy cry all night. Broke my heart. I sigh, and strain my eyes to look up at the teacher who was staring impatiently at me. I instantly shoot up in my chair and look alarmed. He smirked. "Miley Stewart is new to the class, everybody say hello." The teacher snickered. No one's eyes turned to me. I put my head down as I felt my cheeks growing hot. A few mumbles of 'Hi, Miley' were heard around the room. Mr. Aldrige, which I'm guessing was his name, lectured throughout the whole class. Right when I was about to drift off into a nice sleep, the loud bell sounded. I groaned, and grabbed my bag making sure to get out of the classroom as fast as possible. My eyes are darted to floor, and I finally see the door. My speed fastens, and instantly I bump into somebody else. Crap. Bad impression on my first day. I heard the other person groan annoyingly, and my scared wide eyes looked up to who it was. It was a girl with long blonde hair. I was taken aback, just because she was really beautiful. She wasn't girlie, maybe a tomboy. Her baggy pants hung around her waist hardly, and she was wearing a shirt that was way too big for her. I rubbed my sleepy eyes, as I was waiting for her to curse at me so I could say I'm sorry and get on with my horrible new day. God, I have to ruin everything don't I?

"Gee, new girl. Sleeping in class already?" She chuckled, brushing her hair out of her face. I looked at her bewilderded. Did she really not care that I just bumped into her? Well, thank God. "Anyway, what was your name again? I didn't catch it. Gotta admit, I was sleeping too."

"Miley Stewart." I say, and my voice cracks. I haven't been talking much lately. I've been doing more of crying. My cheeks grew red, and she raised an eyebrow. "Sorry for bumping into you." My eyes averted to the floor once again, and I made my way out of the classroom. Before I could make it to my locker, I see Jackson sitting on the floor. Weird. Everyone walking by him chuckles at him as he lowers his head down into his knees. My heart starts beating even faster. I scurry over to him and put my hand on his shoulder and he instantly tensed up. His head snapped up to see me. I give him a small smile, sympathetic. I don't know what's wrong with him, but seeing as what happened with mommy I can take a small guess. "Jackson, what's up?" I whisper, so people won't hear and my voice won't crack again.

"My teacher asked about our family. I started talking about dad, and then.. They asked about mom. I couldn't do it. I ran out of the classroom. And I got yelled at. Why can't people just leave me alone?" Jackson screamed out, and people stopped in the hallway to see the scene that was now happening. I put my head down, and wrapped my arms around him. Tears stinged my eyes, and I blinked them away. I promised myself this morning that I wouldn't cry at school. His arms squeezed me back, and I could feel peoples eyes burning into my back. I was going to say something, but Jackson beat me to it. "What the hell are you staring at? Do you get pleasure out of peoples pain?!" He screamed once again, and people continued walking pretending like nothing had happened. Thank goodness.

"Go to class, Jackson. I'll see you later after school. Be strong. I have to." I whispered again, my throat began hurting again. "Bye." I kissed him on the cheek, something I would've never done in my entire life. But this is important. He looked up to me and smiled. A real smile. A smile tugged at my lips as my heart started beating again. We're smiling again. Ever since mom, we both never smiled. He got up, and left. I'm glad I got a smile out of him. He's my brother and I have to be strong for him and daddy.

*-*-*-*-*-*

I sit alone at lunch. Spaghetti for lunch. Atleast it's halfway good. But somehow, I'm not hungry. I moved my food around on my plate, lost in my own world. I hear a laugh behind me, and I quickly turn around. It's that girl from my algebra class. Great. I really don't feel like talking right now. I look at her, waiting for her to say something.

"You're sitting at our lunch table." She giggles, sitting down next to me along with a friend of hers. He has long hair and a goofy smile on his face. Well, now I'm sitting in their spot. I put my hair in front of my face and pick up the tray. I slowly get out of the seat and she puts her hand on my arm. My head snaps over to her, as if I'm asking her 'What!?' She smiles sweetly. "No, Miley. You can sit here. I was just saying, funny how you're sitting here. That's the last thing I'd expect. By the way, I'm Lily. Lily Truscott. And this is Oliver Oaken." She explains, pointing to herself and then the boy sitting next to her. He waves excitedly, and I just give them a small smile. I sit back down. I guess they do want me to sit here. But this is going to be awkward.

"Hi, Oliver. Hi, Lily." I say quietly, and Oliver gives Lily a knowing look. Lily tells him to be quiet, and I just sit here confused. Ugh. I hate being out of the loop. They look at me, waiting for me to talk. "What?" I ask. Oops. I sounded way more annoyed than I wanted to. Great, being upset over mommy makes me a bitch. Just what I wanted.

"We're wondering why you came here to California?" Oliver spoke up. His voice was goofy, just like his smile. My eyes grew wide. My heart starts beating uncontrolably and I panic. What do I tell them? I can't say it outloud, I can't say she's dead. Do I lie or just not say anything? No, that would be way too awkward.

"My dad got a new job." I came up with instantly, and they both nodded understanding. "Yeah." I say, filling in the silence.

They talked to me the whole lunch time. Awkwardly. Asking me questions. And I avoid everytime my mom comes up, and they don't ask. Thankfully. I can't help but notice how pretty Lily is. She's cute, in an odd way. Oliver keeps on whispering things to her and looking at me. I feel betrayed already. I hate secrets. Then lunch ended, thankfully.

*-*-*-*-*-*

I'm sitting on my bed, avoiding dinner tonight. I lay on my bed, and think of everything that happened today. Wondering why Oliver kept whispering random things to Lily. Just as I was about to get into the shower, my phone started buzzing and soon later my ringtone sounded. _"And there's no blame, for how our love did slowly fade. And now that it's gone, it's like it wasn't there at all. And here I lay, where dissapointment and regret. Collide, lying awake at night."_ I stopped dead in my tracks. That ringtone can only mean one thing. Nathan was calling me. My ex-boyfriend of one year. I sigh, picking up the phone.

"Yes?" I speak into the phone, not really wanting to talk to him. He's the last thing that I needed right now.  
_"Miley, wow it's nice to hear your voice. How are you holding up?" _His low voice on the other line, sounding worried.  
"Hi, Nathan.. What do you want?" I say, a little bit annoyed. How can I not be? He cares now, when my mom dies? But not when he broke my heart?  
_"Geezeee, Miley! Figured you'd be a little happier to speak to me, atleast I care." _Nathan chuckled into the phone, and I roll my eyes.  
"You never cared. When I was crying, you said 'Oh well, Miley, you'll get over it!" I said bitterly into the phone.  
_"I've changed, Miles." _He sighs into the phone, and I cringe. I hate when he calls me that. _"You know, I'm so sorry she's gone."_  
"Stop it, Nathan. Don't talk about it." I demand him, tears begging to spill over. "You can't do this to me."  
_"Miley! Do what to you? I thought you needed someone to talk to. I miss you and I'm worried about you." _He explains to me, and I still don't believe any word he says.  
"You don't miss me, you're a fucking liar." I said, through my gritted teeth. Ugh, he always makes everything worse. "You've always been a liar."  
_"I've never lied to you, not once Miley. What are you talking about?" _He said innocently. Oh, god.  
"Let me think about this one, oh.. Yeah! About loving me! Nathan, I'm telling you I don't need this right now." I started crying into the phone, which I didn't want to do.  
_"You're the one who was always checking out girls while we were going out. I'm out. Peace." _He said, and then phone clicked. I threw my cell phone to my bed.

What an asshole. He just wanted to make me miserable as always. I wasn't always checking out girls, just because I'm bisexual doesn't mean that I always look at girls. But of course he doesn't understand that. He's just stupid. Wow, he ruined my totally calm moment. I was content for once, and he comes in and ruins everything. Like he always does. I sigh, and strip off of all my clothes. I slowly step into the shower, hoping that this water will wash away all my worries. I let the hot water fall over my face, and sigh. It's calming. I forget about Nathan and everything he ever did to hurt me. Just as I was rinsing out my hair, my dad calls up the stairs. "Bud, time for dinner!" I roll my eyes, but involuntarily, my stomach growls. Guess I am hungry after all. Take out will have to do. I dry off and put on pajama shorts and a tank top. I trudge downstairs where the scent of my daddy's food meets my nostrils. A real big smile forms on my face. This is the first time my daddy has cooked since mommy is gone. I bounce over to the table, to see what he made for tonight. Chicken fried steak with mashed patatoes. I take a plate and pile as much as I can onto it and sit down next to Jackson who already has half of his food slammed into his mouth. I chuckle quietly. And then I notice one thing. We're slowly and gradually getting back to where we used to be. Very slowly.

"Daddy, thank you for making dinner tonight." I say gratefully, and he just squeezes my arm and smiles down at me. I engulf the food like I had never eaten anything in my entire life. In a matter of seconds, everything on my plate it gone. "Wow, that hit the spot! Thanks so much dad!" I put my dirty dish in the dishwasher, and walk over to him and give him a kiss on the cheek.

"You're welcome, bud." He says to me, smile on his face but the spark in his eye is still gone. I sigh, and hug him tightly. His arms wrap around me and I feel safe once again. "I love you." He mumbles into my hair, and I let go of him and look him straight in the eye.

"I love you too, daddy."

**A/N**: Well, I had quite fun writing that chapter. I hope you enjoy the first chapter. And I hope you got my hints at Liley. ^-^


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